Tasmanian farmers affected by the forest peace deal in land management limbo

By Selina Bryan
Mon 10 Mar 2014, 8:30 PM AEDT

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World heritage boundary concerns

7pm TV News TAS

A number of Tasmanian farmers say they are still in limbo because of uncertainty surrounding a major plank of the forest peace deal.

It has been eight months since 172,000 hectares of forest were added to the state's world heritage wilderness area as part of the Tasmanian Forest Agreement.

Farmers on neighbouring properties say they still have not been informed about the location of the new boundaries or whether there are any land use changes that may affect their activities.

Meander farmer Michael Johnstone says he has not been notified by the Federal Government that his land now borders the World Heritage Area.

Mr Johnstone's fifth generation family farm sits on the slopes of Mother Cummings Peak, which is part of the Great Western Tiers and one of the forests given world heritage protection last year.

"I don't know whether there'll be buffer zones imposed, I need to manage the wildlife off that area, I've got patches I intend to log in the future and the implications of all that are just unknown," he said.

Farmers are also concerned about managing wildlife, weeds and bushfire risks and the Parks and Wildlife Service's ability to deal with those issues.

The President of the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association, Jan Davis, says the Federal Government has not been communicating with her members.

"Certainly doesn't give confidence or certainty to the people who are affected," she said.

"The parks people don't have the resources to manage what they've got, let alone this new tranche they've been given."

The Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Tasmanian Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck, says there will be more detail in June, when the World Heritage Committee is due to announce its decision on the government's application to delist part of the area.

"Until we know where the boundaries are and the characteristics of it, it's going to be very, very difficult to define all of those sorts of things," he said.

"A lot of those things exist in the existing management plan so they could probably get some sort of idea from looking at those existing management plans."